


Five Injuries Hidden

by Duganator01



Series: New Ways To Fall Apart [2]
Category: RWBY
Genre: 5+1 Things, Angst, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Jaune keeps collecting more siblings, Serious Injuries, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-21
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:27:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 13,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24298081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duganator01/pseuds/Duganator01
Summary: A little look into the extents that Jaune would go for his team, his friends, his family. Did he maybe go a little too far at times? Maybe. Is it really necessary for him to get medical attention and actually heal his injuries? Probably. Will he ever stop gladly throwing himself on top of the wire to protect even one of them? Definitely not.Maybe he should actually let them help him when he goes too far and gets hurt in their stead. But for that to happen, they’d have to know about the hits that he keeps taking for them, which they don’t and never will. And what they don’t know won’t kill them.But… It might kill him if he isn’t careful.((I keep forgetting Aura is a thing, so don’t mind me giving him injuries that he shouldn't really be able to get. Set vaguely between V5 and V6.))
Relationships: Jaune Arc & Everyone
Series: New Ways To Fall Apart [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1865548
Comments: 24
Kudos: 87





	1. Oscar

**Author's Note:**

> Jaune’s never had a baby brother before, so he can be forgiven for being just a little bit more protective than he really needs to be, right?

It was pouring

Not an innocent little sprinkle either, oh no. It was a torrential downpour.

The water kept getting in his hair and washing it down into his face. Who needs eyesight anyway? That wasn’t necessary, right?

And to think, he had been having such a nice day, too.

A wild shout snapped Jaune out of his thoughts, and he snapped up his sword to block the clumsy swipe of the Ursa’s paw, the resounding clang leaving a faint ringing in his ears. A grin made its way onto the soaked knight’s face as he batted the offending limb away with his shield and slashed across with his blade to decapitate it.

Whipping his head around, Jaune quickly scanned the impromptu battle field for his friends. His family. A voice that sounded suspiciously like Yang’s joked in the back of his head about counting heads like a teacher on a field trip, but he paid it no mind.

Relief swept through him as he saw that they all had their battles well in hand. Yang and Nora even seemed to be making a game out of it, shouting out the number of kills to each, both trying to one up the other. Their partners were taking it more seriously, but Jaune could see Blake smiling in amusement and hear the laugh tinging Ren’s words.

Ruby and Weiss were dashing around each other, working like a perfectly oiled machine. Glyphs would appear for Ruby to run on, perfectly timed for her to take out a truly obscene amount of Grimm with one strike. As he watched, he even saw Oscar take out a Beowulf singlehanded.

Jaune couldn’t help the swell of pride in his chest.

Shaking his sopping wet out of his eyes -in vain, apparently, as it simply slid right back after he swept it away for the millionth time- a movement in the trees caught his eye by complete chance. Red glowing eyes and feathers flickered from branch to branch. 

Whipping his head around, Jaune zeroed in on a hidden Nevermore. It must have been drawn by the strife of the combat. With a screech it launched itself from the trees and reared back its wings to launch its feathers like throwing daggers.

Aiming directly at Oscar. Oscar, who still had trouble remembering to keep his Aura up. His brother. His  _ baby _ brother.

Everything seemed to slow as his mind’s eye worked out just what he was seeing. He quietly pushed away the rage that bubbled up, and sought the cool planning mindset that had saved him and his friends time and again. Jaune would have time for anger later -because how  _ dare _ that monster even  _ think _ of laying a feather on Oscar Pine- because he had more immediate problems.

For one, and most immediately, that he would not be able to warn Oscar in time. No, the stupid bird was already locked and loaded onto Oscar, and by the time he warned him, there could be a feather a foot long skewered through his chest.

So, that brought his options down to only one. One acceptable solution. If that arrow was going to hit  _ anyone _ , it was going to be him.

As he came to that conclusion, everything rushed back into full motion.

The Nevermore loosed its feathers like a hailstorm.

Oscar heard the noise and turned to see what was flying towards him.

Their friends yelled out in warning. Weiss threw up a wall a moment too late. Ruby jumped into a cloud of petals.

And Jaune slammed Oscar -his little brother, dammit stupid bird would  _ pay  _ for that- out of the way, his momentum carrying them both mostly out of the path of the barrage. Mostly.

Jaune was never so happy to have a soaking wet red sash tied around his middle than at that moment. It hid injuries quite well.

Hiding a grimace of pain as something just short of agony raced across his lower ribs, Jaune quickly checked over Oscar for injuries. His Aura flared up in his hands, liquid light pouring down into any possible imaginary injuries the boy could have. “Are you okay?! It didn’t get you, did it?”

Oscar shook himself out of his shocked stupor, blinking dazedly. “N-no. I’m fine. Thanks Jaune.”

Jaune breathed a sigh of relief, shoulders slumping, before they raised back up rigidly and his shield spiraled back out to cover them both. “Wait, what about the Nevermore?!”

Ren laid a calming hand on Jaune’s shoulder. “Not to worry. Ruby and Weiss are taking care of it. Are  _ you _ alright, Jaune?”

A sharp sting lanced across his ribs. Couldn’t spare Aura for an injury he didn’t know the extent of. What if he needed to heal someone? “Yeah, sure, I’m fine! Do you think you could check over Oscar to make sure that it really missed him?”

Ren tilted his head to one side in confusion and crouched down beside them both. “I saw you using your Semblance, but it you’re sure-”

“Guys, I’m fine! Not even  _ bruised _ anymore thanks to you,” Oscar reassured him.

“You got him to the ground before the others even took off after the rest of the Grimm,” Ren reminded Jaune, ignoring the knight’s skeptical expression. “You did well, Jaune.”

“My ‘good enough’ almost wasn’t good enough.” Jaune slumped tiredly, resisting the urge to sling his arm across his torso to cover the angry welt he could feel. “I’m just relieved I saw it in time.”

Oscar punched him lightly in the arm, and then shook out his fingers from punching his metal armor. Jaune didn’t even notice the hit, but he noticed the reprimand. “Come on, stop that. Please! You saved me, you made it. I’m right here, on the ground, safe and sound.”

“Yeah, what he said!” Ruby called as she waded through the semi-dense brush, the tell tale smoke of dead Grimm dripping and seeping off the scythe leaning on her shoulder.

Good. The thing was dead. Jaune tried not to feel so satisfied about that.

Nora bounced out from behind her and slung an arm across Jaune’s shoulders, unknowingly aggravating Jaune’s side. “C’mon fearless leader, cheer up! Everything turned out a-okay. Now, what do ya say we all finish up here and go get something to eat, huh?”

Jaune heartily agreed, and soon they were all back in Mistral proper. Qrow, slung across the couch with one arm covering his eyes, grumbled when their troop stomped inside covered in mud and shouting to each other. 

Excusing himself with the plea of exhaustion, Jaune snagged the first-aid kit from the kitchen and sequestered himself into his and Oscar’s shared room. And with a wince, he finally took in the extent of the damage.

The less said about the torturous removing of his armor and soaked through clothing, the better.

A long, angry red mark was gouged across his side, right under his rib cage, and a dark, grim looking bruise covered from just above the severe laceration all the way down to the top of his hip. 

He stared at it for several long seconds, debating whether to heal it or not. Who knows what they’d be doing over the next couple days. Could he afford to leave it? Or could he afford to siphon off precious Aura to heal himself, when he might need it for the others?

After far too long, he settled on cleaning it out first and figuring it out later.

Biting back the few curse words he knew, mostly from Yang, he quickly balled up the cleanest, least muddy piece of his shirt before biting down on it, effectively blocking any yelps that would be sure to somehow slip past the firm barrier he had paced against them.

Taking a deep breath in through his nose, his side protesting fiercely, and gathering up all his courage, Jaune tore open a sterile package and applied the large antiseptic patch found within.

The world whited out.

Suddenly, in some part of his brain that was untouched by overwhelming agony, he was very, very glad that he had taken the precautions to stop anyone from seeing or hearing him. Locking the door behind him had been an afterthought born from years of sibling life, but now he was so very glad that he took the second to do so.

After all, he couldn’t have someone walking in on him feeling like he was dying, now could he?

He used to like rainy days.

Somehow pulling himself back together out of the sheer force of will, he finished cleaning out the gash. He channeled a sliver of Aura into the injury and watched as it stitched himself up into a barely healed slash, still surrounded by bruising. Just enough to stop the bleeding.

Taking a moment to center himself, he spit his shirt out of his mouth and finished up by wrapping a loop of gauze around his middle and over the still extremely tender wound.

Finished. Now he could die in peace. Didn’t they say that death was eternal rest? Yeah. He could go for an eternal nap right about now.

Sadly, that wasn’t in the cards for Jaune at the moment. Briefly mourning the fact that he couldn’t stay seated on his bedroom floor with stray medical supplies strewn about forever, Jaune mentally shook himself off and begrudgingly started cleaning up any evidence of this little escapade. 

His dirty shirt got tossed right into the laundry, along with the bloody soaked and slightly-more-tattered sash. Hopefully nobody would notice the extra holes in the latter.

That done, and knowing that Oscar at the very least would undoubtedly be coming by soon, Jaune quickly pulled a new shirt over his head to hide the remaining evidence, i.e. his injury. 

It was quick for him, but really he walked slowly with shuffling steps, as his side strongly rebelled against the thought of doing anything fast other than sleeping. So he shucked off his soaking wet jeans, tossed them into the pile with his shirt and sash, tugged on a pair of sweatpants, and collapsed painfully into his bed.

No training tonight. Sorry, Pyrrha, but he didn’t think he’d manage to wake up to his alarm no matter how loud he set it. And setting it loud enough to wake the others was a no-go. Jaune felt so exhausted that he doubted even his nightmares would be enough to wake him.

Don’t get him wrong, Jaune didn’t regret what he did. He never would. You could scour his soul for eternity, and you would never find even a slightest shade of remorse for doing what he had done to save Oscar, the little brother he’d never had. 

This result was the optimal one. That’s what he did, he crunched the numbers. And the numbers would always come to this result, without question. Jaune would gladly relive this entire horrible, muddy, rainy day a million times if it meant that Oscar would come out of it uninjured. 

In fact, he would willingly do this for any of his friends, his  _ family _ , the family he’d found and made and cobbled together. This family that was a little damaged and cracked, but that had dragged him out of the darkest time in his life without a second thought and without asking for anything in return. 

A debt that Jaune could never begin to repay. Not that he’d ever stop trying. He hadn’t been grateful enough when they’d been doing it, so he was doubly grateful for them sticking with it and not giving up on him like he’d so dearly wanted them to.

So he’d do anything for them. Anything at all. With absolutely no hesitation at all. If any of their lives were on the line, there were really no numbers to be crunched. This decision was a no-brainer.

Hands down, no questions asked.


	2. Ruby

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another day, another injury. Ruby had roped him into plenty of shenanigans before, but nothing like this.

Now fully healed, if sore, Jaune somehow found himself helping Ruby. When he’d signed up to help her, he had to admit, this wasn’t exactly what he had in mind.

Ruby was building some new upgrade for Crescent Rose, so he’d gathered from the extensive rambling that she’d done. Over excited, flitting from place to place in a burst of petals every time until Yang had been forced to clothesline her to slow her down.

She’d slowed down her explanation, barely, and then hauled him off on “an adventure.” If they even  _ were _ getting parts for Ruby’s scythe, Jaune still wasn’t sure. It changed every time he asked, but he was fairly certain she just wanted an excuse to explore the junkyard she’d found near their hotel.

And Jaune had been drafted as the chaperone. 

Not that he minded. Much. If something happened, he wanted to be on hand anyways.

Now, they just had to get parts for the upgrade, or whatever Ruby was planning on constructing. This was proving easier said than done, as what was supposed to be a quick trip to the junkyard proved about two and a half hours later.

“Ruby! I really don’t think we’re gonna find parts for a  _ laser _ in a junkyard.”

Ruby looked from the pile and tutted, “Oh Jaune, ye of little faith! You have no idea what kind of treasures we’ll find out here! Once, I found perfectly fine Atlas weapon tech at the bottom of a scrap-metal heap.”

Jaune blinked, wide eyed. eyed. "I don't know whether to be more concerned about the fact that you found military-grade weapons, or that you're so nonchalant about it."

Ruby snorted and threw a stray paperclip at him. "Oh, shush you. Besides, did I ever tell you about the time that I found an honest to god nearly mint-condition comic book collection? Who in their right minds would throw that away?! A perfectly good comic book collection just sitting in the pile..."

With Ruby slowly sliding into the now familiar rambling, Jaune tuned out slightly. One half of his brain was listening to her, in case she made any indication that he needed to input into the conversation. The other half of his brain was keeping an ear out for any sign of danger.

Later on, when Jaune looked back, he supposed that's what ended up saving them.

Freezing at the tell-tale sound of a groaning creak, barely heard over Ruby's voice, Jaune hissed out. "Ruby. Stop talking"

Ruby huffed at him, not understanding the danger. "Why though? I was rambling I know, you probably weren’t even listening were you-"

"No, seriously Ruby. Be quiet," Jaune insisted, freezing and listening hard

Finally taking note of the true seriousness of her friend’s tone and his ridged posture, the huntress similarly froze and whispered. "Jaune, what's wrong?"

Jaune never got to answer, as a metallic screech rent the air and the pile they were standing on started to tip over and start falling apart.

Jaune shoved Ruby ahead of him, "MOVE!"

With a yelp, Ruby scrambled forwards with Jaune right on her tail, the relatively safe foot and hand holds becoming scarcer and scarcer as the pile unstabilized right underneath them.

But, of course, since the situation wasn't quite bad enough already, one of Ruby's foot-holds gave way right underneath her as soon as he stepped, consequently twisting her ankle. With a shriek, Ruby tumbled backwards, falling back into the metal waterfall that the pile was becoming.

Or, she would have, if it hadn't been for Jaune locking a steel-like grip around her upper-arm and, with his adrenaline running through him like a wildfire, the knight hauled his red caped “sister” over his shoulder in a fire-man's carry.

“Where the heck did you learn to do that?!” Ruby yelled over his shoulder, shifting awkwardly.

“No time!” Jaune yelled back, shifting her to a more secure position and nearly weeping with relief as he saw her Aura already fighting to fix the broken bone.

Snarling in determination, Jaune scaled the metal mountain, trying to outrun the forces of gravity that were tipping the pile, his freshly healed side protesting with a faint phantom pain that he paid no mind to. He couldn't. There was just no time.

By some form of miracle, out of the corner of his eye, Jaune spotted a small pile of discarded cushions off the side. On the ground. Out of the way of the tumbling pile.

But, with his speed hampered by Ruby's weight, they wouldn't make it in time. Not both of them anyways.

Ruby couldn't run, not with her twisted ankle. Even with her Aura, it wouldn’t heal in time. And he had no time to stop and lay on hands. His Semblance just wasn’t fast enough yet.

And he wouldn't be fast enough for the both of them.

So, with these thoughts most predominant in his mind, Jaune began shifting his hold on his friend. "I'm going to throw you! Brace yourself!"

"You're going to what?!" Ruby yelped incredulously. But that was the only thing that she had time to do before she found himself flying through the air with a scream. Upon finding that she no longer had to support her weight, Ruby disappeared in a cloud of petals. 

She rematerialized on the ground, and the yelp of pain she made when she put pressure back on her injured leg was cut off as she landed in the fairly large pile of cushions Jaune had originally aimed for.

With the time that it took to throw Ruby, the metal under Jaune's feet had become unstable, causing him to trip backwards as it took him with it to the ground below.

“Jaune!” he heard Ruby scream from safety below.

At least he knew when he landed, if the pain of dislocating or potentially breaking his arm was anything to go by.

Stifling a ragged scream that clawed its way up his throat, Jaune curled under the miraculously placed, dented metal table that he had rolled under for protection. Hard won battle instincts at their finest. His shield spiraled out to block the small opening, and he begged that it would be enough.

Soon, the roaring sound of falling metal subsided, and the newly settling silence caused Jaune to mostly snap out of his pain-filled daze. Cautiously lifting his head up off the ground, and after a moment, deeming it safe enough to shift in his little cubby, Jaune's shoulder decided to remind him that it was still here and hadn't gone anywhere in the last ten minutes with a harsh stab of blinding pain.

Sucking in a sharp breath, Jaune decided to get it over with and see if he couldn't alleviate at least a little of the acute pain in his general shoulder area. Gingerly pulling his pauldron off shoulder and rolling up his sleeve with a definitely not exaggerated wince of pain, it was revealed that, no, it was not broken. 

Dislocated? Yes. Bruised? Painters the world over would have been proud of all the interesting colors his shoulder was turning.

Well, that just wouldn't do.

Fumbling to close his shield for a moment, he drew Crocea Mors and sank his teeth into the firm, thick leather hilt. Ooohhhh, this was going to hurt. Very much bad. Just go to your happy, Jaune, just go to your happy place.

Before he could back out of it or tense back up, Jaune yanked his shoulder and popped it back into place with a cringe worthy snap.

Ow. Ow, ow, owchie, ow ow, OW. Hurting very much bad, ow.

Blinking away his pain-induced tears and slowly extracting his teeth from the small dents -that wouldn't last hopefully- made in the hilt, Jaune let himself take a moment to shakily suck in sharp gasps of breath. 

There. He did it. All is well in the Jaune world. Maybe. He would have to get back to that later, when his shoulder wasn't still throbbing with, though significantly dulled, pain.

Okay, the moment's over. Time to move again. Joy.

"Jaune?! Jaune where are you?! Jaune!" Oh. That was Ruby. He should probably let her know that he's alive and just fine. Just fine. Not injured at all. Right.

Clearing his throat -when did it get so dry?- Jaune shouted, "Yeah! I'm here!"

The relief was tangible in Ruby's voice. "Y-your alive! Are you okay?!"

His shoulder throbbed in response and he reluctantly pulled his sleeve back down and his pauldron back up. Couldn’t have them wondering what was going on with that. "Yeah, I’m just fine, don’t worry! Though, I'm getting a little claustrophobic in here."

"Don't worry, I called the others as soon as I landed, so they should be here shortly!"

Just as she said that, the familiar outraged tones of Nora Valkyrie and Yang Xiao Long reached them, letting them both sigh a breath of relief.

Soon enough, both of them were bundled away into their rooms in the hotel. Knowing Ren would try and scan him for injuries, Jaune skillfully evaded any medical check of his own. In fact, after boosting Ruby enough to heal her ankle, he slipped away into the bathroom, firmly locking the door behind him.

Unless Ren could already tell he was injured, which Jaune dearly hoped not. He did not need to be coddled, thank you. All he needed was a nice hot shower and his pillow

Thanking whatever deity had granted the small mercy of it not being an open wound, Jaune once again removed his armor and winced as he took in the full sight of his shoulder in proper lighting. 

It wasn't pretty, but at least it didn't look like his arm was about to fall off... In fact, he could probably blame the bruising on running into a door or maybe even falling out of his bunk. Running into a door was significantly less embarrassing than falling out of bed, but whatever worked.

And hey, it wasn’t that unheard of for him to run into things when he wasn’t paying attention. Doorways were not his friends. Stupid things being slightly too short or in not quite the spot he remembered them being. Betrayals all around.

Finishing getting undressed, his brand new scar under his rib-cage in full view, Jaune stepped into the shower and decided he never ever ever wanted to leave. Ever.

One shower later, pajamas and teeth brushed, and hair relatively dry, Jaune finally retreated to his long awaited bed. And sleep. Sweet blessed sleep.

Checking in on everyone on his way back, he found some people still awake, some getting ready for bed, and some asleep. Counting his chickens. Everyone accounted for.

Jaune swiped an ice-pack from the kitchen on the way past and finally collapsed into bed. Listening to Oscar’s breathing, slow and even, gently lulled him to sleep. Everyone was safe, here, breathing, and relatively uninjured.

With this soothing thought, Jaune fell into a dreamless sleep.


	3. Nora

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stuck between a rock and a hard place, not the best thing ever. He didn’t really need his ribs, right?

" _Why_ did I ever agree to this?"

"Oh, shush Jaune."

This was the last time that Jaune ever did anything 'recreational'. This did not count for recreation by any definition that he knew of.

You see, it all started this morning, when Oscar, dear, sweet little brother who was going to get an ice-cube down his shirt, had the so-called brilliant idea of doing 'recreational' activities today, and being the awesome big brother that he was, Jaune had backed him up.

That was his first mistake.

They then decided, after ruling out sky-diving -no, Nora, sky-diving was not considered a recreational activity. Stop pouting- and skiing, that hiking was the best, most relaxing choice. On a rocky mountain-side. Thanks Ren.

So there they were, walking down the trail together, racing really, unknowing that even a simple hiking trail could be a true danger zone. Jaune had even started to enjoy himself, teasing and laughing... He let his guard down.

That was his second mistake.

Honestly, he should know better than to do that, he was a Huntsman. It was this mistake that landed them in their current situation.

If only he'd been a little bit faster... "Jaune. I can hear you beating yourself up from here. Quit it. It wasn't your fault."

"I'll stop when you do."

"...Touche"

Without warning, there had been a sudden, distant roar of a landslide, and it had only gotten louder. Surprised, they had all stood on the quaking path, frozen for a few precious moments, before Yang whipped around with a roar: "MOVE!"

Screaming, they all ran for life and limb. But the rock slide was quickly catching up... And they never took into account that the path they were on could have become unstable too.

His third mistake... And the one he ended up paying for the most.

Honestly, this had been a disaster in the making since the beginning. It was a miracle that he was even still alive.

Jaune had been the closest to the edge, and with one wrong step, the weakened path gave way right out from under him. With a shriek, which he would forever deny, he failed to keep his balance and desperately tried to grab the crumbling ledge as it dumped him off the path.

Nora, in a rare show of stupidity in Jaune's opinion, because he is _not_ worth risking her life for why did she not _see that_ , stopped running for her life and went back to pull Jaune back up.

The path couldn't hold them. It couldn’t even hold him, let alone a whole other person.

They dropped over the edge like the stones that came tumbling, rushing, roaring after them. And, just barely heard through the deafening turmoil made of natural forces, Jaune heard his teammate give a whoop of exhilaration, or maybe fear, and the world came to a sickening halt.

It was... dark. Quiet now. There was no sound, except his own wheezing breath and the sharp agony that was his side. No. Wait, there was someone else breathing down here too.

And that was how half of team JNPR found themselves trapped in a rather small pocket on the side of the crumbling mountain side, buried under the rock slide. Stuck until the others found them.

With broken ribs, in his case. Not that Nora knew that, of course. If she did, she would just worry about him, and he couldn’t have her focusing on him right now. All her attention had to be turned towards getting out of here, and not on him.

Jaune locked his jaw to keep from screaming profanities as he felt his broken ribs agonizingly rub up against each other, and shifted as gently and slowly as he could. The knight blindly felt along the thick stone walls, trying to find his oddly quiet teammate.

Nora wasn’t exactly the least chatty on their team, that award went to Ren, so her silence was more than a little off-putting.

Finally connecting to something decidedly not stone, a vague sense a triumph bubbled in Jaune's chest as Nora sputtered. "Jaune, that's my face!"

He yanked his hand back with a startled yelp, that was a little more high-pitched than normal as he had jostled his broken ribs. "Sorry! I was just trying to see where you were."

Nora huffed. "If you wanted to see where I was, why didn't you use your Semblance? Glowy hands and all that jazz."

“Oh.” He felt stupid now for not thinking of it. Maybe he’d hit his head during his impromptu tumble.

The grim, oppressing silence came back in full force, slowly eating away at them. Jaune groaned, lightly banging the back of his head on the wall of stone behind him, before struggling to his feet and gingerly making his way to the pile of rubble that was blocking their way out.

"What are you doing?" Jaune got the vague impression of an eyebrow being lifted as he started shifting the rubble.

"I..." Grunt. "Am going to see if I can get us out of here." Jaune huffed as he attempted to move a particularly unwieldy stone. His ribs kindly reminded him that, no, he was not, in fact, going to be moving that rock. Grumbling, he relented and moved onto the next one.

His ribs told him that, no, he wasn't moving that one either.

An exasperatedly fond sigh sounded from behind him and the sound of feet shuffling closer alerted Jaune to the fact that Nora was now beside him. "Move over silly, let me have a try."

“It’s all yours,” he said, a little reluctantly, careful not to let out the groan of pain that was fighting to escape. Jaune shuffled back to his spot against the wall, knowing that he would hinder more than help. Didn't make him feel any better though.

There became a rhythm as the minutes passed. Or hours. Or days. It was pitch freaking black, there was no way of telling.

Wheezey inhale. Sharp pain. Nora grumbled at the rocks.

Exhale. Rocks move.

Inhale. Pain. Pebbles scatter.

Exhale. Nora groaned in exertion.

Inhale. Pain. A boulder thumped.

Exhale. The rocks shift.

Inhale. Fresh air? Pain. A penetratingly loud sound of triumph.

Exhale. Light! "Well, why don't you look at that! Light does still exist! Looks like we'll be out of here in no time!" Nora cheered, her silhouette punching the air in triumph.

Jaune winced, his eyes closed against the stabbing light, tired but not willing to show it. "You think we'll be out before the sun sets?"

"We will be if I have anything to say about it."

The air was lighter as Nora resumed digging through the blockade, the pattern resuming with renewed vigor.

Soon enough, there was a big enough gap dug out for her to crawl through, and then shortly afterwards, a larger gap for _him_ to crawl through. That was not fun. But at least they were freed from their little stone tomb as the sun was slowly setting in a distance, and a Lancer flew overhead.

Wait a second. Since when did Lancers come in bright translucent white-blue?

Sharing a glance with his dusty, pink-clad teammate, they both took off chasing Weiss’s summon, waving their arms wildly in the hopes of getting the heiress's attention.

Which they did eventually.

After Nora lit a tree on fire.

It was an accident, she swore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter did not want to happen, but I made it anyway.


	4. Ren

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yeah this was bad. This was very very bad, all kinds of bad.

Panting raggedly, Jaune leaned his head against the cool metal wall that he was half using as cover against a barrage of sharp iron  _ somethings _ and half using as support. Angrily punching the wall in frustration with all the dwindling strength of a kitten, the knight quickly recounted the horribly failed mission that just kept getting worse and worse. How had it gone so wrong, so fast?

"Alright, gather 'round guys. Ruby, go ahead."

Ruby nodded to her uncle, and switched on the hologram display. Clearing her throat, she gestured to the literal fortress of a factory shown. "This is our target." She took this moment to zoom in slightly and highlight multiple entrance points, things to look out for, and guard placements. 

"We’ll enter in through three points. Here." An area in a blind-spot at a corner of the factory lit up. "Here." One of the minor smoke towers. "And here, right through the front gates"

Our eyes snapped to her in alarm. "Wait, what?!"

A cunning, wry grin stretched across her face. "Yep. There's a major top secret delivery coming in tonight, and there will be a lot of guards... No one should bat an eye at two more. We'll slip in right under their noses."

Sharing her grin, Yang wrapped an arm around her shoulders and ruffled her hair, just like she used to do when they were little. "Sis, have I ever told you how awesome you are?"

The rest of the team loudly voiced their agreements. Ruby giggled, pretending to ponder for a moment. "Nooo, I don't think you have."

Yang mock-gasped in horror. "Never?! Well I guess I'll have to fix that, won't I?" His grin became a bit fonder, "Seriously though, sis. This awesome plan of yours will definitely get us in without a hitch!"

Oscar laughed, his eyes shining as he laid his hand on her unoccupied shoulder. "Yeah! With this plan of yours, what could possibly go wrong?"

...He would have to punch Oscar the next time he saw him. Hard.

But, to do that, Jaune would have to survive this first. Which he wouldn't if he didn't get moving right now. 

Gritting his teeth against the throbbing hot-firey pain stabbing his thigh, the knight quickly and painfully tucked into a forwards roll and then dove into another open hallway as the air whistled with projectiles behind him. Blinking rapidly to get the world back into focus, which did nothing for the light-headedness that was slowly causing a headache to pulse behind his eyes, Jaune scrambled forwards.

Good thing he did too, as where he was just previously sitting was now outlined with bolts of steel. His panting growing increasingly ragged as he darted sloppily through the halls, Jaune came to a split second decision that would either save him... or kill him. But, if he didn't do something soon, he would die anyways. Yaayyy.

Twisting around, his leg screaming profanities at him, and would probably be throwing sharp objects too, if it were physically able. 

Backing into a ventilation shaft as quickly as he could with his bulky armor, he crumpled as much as his body as he could behind the outline of his shield. The jolt of impacting rounds sent vibrations up his arms and set his teeth on edge.

Diving into the ventilation system was probably a bad idea, but it was his only option, so he would just have to deal with it. Finding a rather large conjunction of what seemed to be a collection of at least one major vent and a couple of smaller ones, knight decided to take a chance and rest here for the time being.

At least stopping would put a halt to the infernal screeching his armor was doing as it scraped against the narrow walls of the duct.

His thigh decided then to remind him that it was not happy with him running around with it by making it feel like he was being stabbed and branded at the same time. With a suppressed yelp of pain and kinda feeling like he wanted to cry, Jaune finally decided to fully see why his leg was causing him so much grief, though he could guess.

The sight that greeted him made his already pale skin pale even further and he swore softly.

His leg was still bleeding heavily, signaling that something major must have been at least nicked, and the cause of it all was innocently sitting embedded in his leg. 

The end of the bolt that was sticking out of his thigh was splintered off, showing that it had snapped in his mad dash to safety. Or maybe he had broken it in half right after he was hit so that it wouldn't hinder him... It was hard to tell. He supposed blood-loss would do that to you.

Oh well. Nothing he could fix right now, so he would just have to put up with it until he got to a proper first-aid kit. Or something like that. Everything was a little fuzzy right now.

With a hiss, he untied his sash from his waist tugged it as tight as he could around the injury as an extremely makeshift bandage. Not the greatest bandage, but it would have to do for now. After all, he couldn't risk bleeding out before he finished the mission, now could he?

Now, time to get moving again. Fun times, fun times.

After finally getting to his feet, his thigh screaming at him the entire time, Jaune decided to start limping through the largest, major vent so that at least he wouldn't have to belly crawl for who knows how long.

One foot in front of the other, Jaune, one foot in front of the other.

He supposed it was a good thing he did, because after an undetermined amount of time limping quietly through the large vent he came across a grate that let him see down into another hallway. Where a group of guards just shoved one of his friends into what looked much like a cell. 

A glimpse of green before the door slammed shut gave away exactly who it was. Ren.

How did they catch Ren?! He was the most careful out of them all, never taking unneeded risks unless it was necessary.

Maybe it was necessary? Nevertheless, it was up to Jaune to get him out of there. As soon as the guards left.

Was the world getting fuzzy, or was it just him? Must be Ren. Ren’s Semblance or something. Yeah. Had to be, because if it wasn't, that probably meant he was in serious trouble of bleeding out.

Grumbling quietly, Jaune silently unscrewed the narrow grate and carefully let himself drop down to the floor once the guards left, locking his jaw to keep a ragged shriek from escaping him as the broken bolt in his leg was harshly jostled. 

Blinking away both pain-induced tears and the spots threatening to cloud his vision, the exhausted teen hobbled closer to the thick, locked door and quickly set upon opening it.

He took one glance up the hallway, one glance down, and brought his shield down  _ hard _ on the padlock.

The harsh clanging noise rang louder than a thunderclap in Jaune’s ears. He froze in his tracks, grip tightening on his word, certain that the noise would draw every guard in the building to his exact location.

After a few tense moments that couldn’t have been more than a couple minutes but felt like years, and nobody showed up to drag him away from his teammate, Jaune allowed himself a brief sigh of relief. Very brief, as the slumping put more pressure on his leg and sent him jolting back to very upright again.

Eyeing the door he’d just unlocked, more or less, Jaune warily pushed it open, not quite sure what he would encounter on the other side. With a gasp of pain that accompanied his harshly throbbing leg, he darted inside the small cell to his limp green-clad brother's side. 

With a quick check, he confirmed that, yes, Ren was still alive, and simply just knocked out.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Jaune roughly shook his teammate's shoulder. "C'mon, Ren. Wake up! I can't fight while carrying you, so you need to wake up!" He probably couldn’t carry him right now even if he tried, Jaune thought ruefully.

A muffled groan was his answer. He winced, worried that his shaking had only furthered some unseen damage. Sighing, and really wishing he didn’t have to do this, Jaune’s Semblance flowed his Aura into his free hand, too wary of his surroundings to let his hand drop away from his sword.

Placing his hand on Ren’s shoulder, Jaune allowed his Aura to mingle with Ren’s, hoping that this would be enough to jolt his teammate back into the waking world.

It worked, if a bit too well. Ren’s eyes flew open, and before Jaune’s blood loss slowed reflexes could see, his teammate’s blades were at his throat

"Ren! It’s just me, it’s just me!!" Jaune said desperately, waving his hands at his barely conscious brother. Ren’s eyes were wild, and his chest was heaving, but Jaune was relieved to see a flicker of recognition cross his face.

Ren lowered his weapons, but not by much, "I’m sorry, Jaune. I thought you were… Nevermind. I thought we agreed not to do that unless-"

"'Unless it was in dire circumstances', I know. But this can be qualified, as you weren't waking up, and have you seen where we are?! Now, let's get out of here before the guards get back. Can you stand?"

After a moment, Ren nodded before wincing and rubbing his forehead, "Yes, but it I must have hit my head fairly hard. I think I can stand, but it will not be pleasant by any means."

Jaune winced sympathetically. That was a concussion if he’d ever heard of one. "I can top you off if you want…?” he offered, lighting up his hand again.

“There’s no need,” Ren reassured him, climbing smoothly to his feet. Perhaps not as smoothly as he would normally, but close enough that Jaune was slightly less concerned. “Let’s just focus on finding the others and getting out of here.”

"Agreed."

With that, the two battered teammates stealthily climbed back into the vents, and closed the grate behind them.

Now, it was time to find the others, hopefully in better condition than them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, is that vague plot I see?


	5. Reunited

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He could hide from his teammates one on one. All he could hope for was that if they were all together, he could still shrug them all off

It had been three hours, stumbling through to their assigned mission points, and there was still no sign of their wayward friends. Jaune didn't know whether to be relieved or scared out of his mind.

He settled on a happy medium.

Another growing concern was if he'd be any help at all soon, as his leg had not stopped bleeding and his lightheadedness had gotten progressively worse. At least Ren wouldn't have to worry about him too, with his concussion making it difficult to summon up the concentration necessary to check Jaune for injuries.

Thank the gods for severe head trauma.

They had finished their own missions as quickly as two Huntsmen in a fortress swarming with guards could, and then started checking the places where the others had been sent.

But no such luck. There was no sign that they had even made it there in the first place.

Roughly running a hand through his hair, anxiety through the roof, he watched Ren peer through the small vent down into yet another room. This time it was a small storage room. Looking up, Ren shook his head, silently conveying that their friends weren't there either. 

Letting his hand fall limply to his side, Jaune scowled darkly at the far wall of the steadily narrowing vent they had been making their way through.

Closing his eyes and resting the back of his throbbing skull on the chilled wall, Jaune suppressed a teeth-chattering shiver that rushed through his bones. That wasn’t a good sign.

The knight stiffened at the sudden cool hand on his shoulder, his eyes snapping open and his hand jerking to the hilt of his sword before he made himself relax. It was only Ren. "-d you hear anything I said? Jaune?" 

Shaking his head -gently, mind you, no need to make things worse- to hopefully clear some of the fuzziness that was slowly growing in size. "Y-yeah, um, yeah, sorry could you repeat that for me?" 

If anything, this made his teammate look even more concerned. "I was asking if you were okay, as I cannot properly check myself. Are you okay to continue looking for the others?"

Shaking Ren’s hand off his shoulder, Jaune marched onwards to the next vent without answering, forcing himself to not wince every time he put his weight onto his injured leg. There was no way he was going to stop because of a stupid iron bolt through his leg..

Fate must have decided that this had gone on long enough after the umpteenth room or hallway they peered down into, because the shrill sound of an alarm screamed through the air and echoed twice as loudly through the vents, causing both teens to cover their now deafened ears.

No longer concerned with being loud, they hurried down the vents, following the stream of guards from above. Jaune's limp became more and more predominant the faster he went, but he forced himself to walk perfectly normal every time he saw Ren even twitch in his direction, which probably messed his leg up even more.

Nothing could have prepared him for what he saw though, through the vent right above all the commotion.

Lined up in a row on their knees were their friends glaring defiantly up into their captor's and the guard's eyes, prisoners to be executed and looking more than a little roughed up.

The rage was instant and fierce, roaring through his system and clearing away the exhaustion, pain, and fuzziness with all the power of a howling wild-fire. He didn’t notice that he was tearing through the grate with his bare hands. Not until he was suddenly tipping forwards and Ren yelped as he tried to catch him, but to no avail.

The world slowed. His mind, at this very moment, was as clear as it had been in hours, but he knew it wouldn't last long. But it would last long enough to at least get his siblings out of here, and complete their mission.

He could work with that time limit.

He was currently falling from a rather high place, so no matter how he landed, it was going to hurt. A lot.

But, if you really looked, his current position was also the greatest place to do the most damage. Yes. He could work with that. He could definitely work with that

Jaune happened to have surprise on his side, though not for very long. This would have to be done quickly.

Luckily, Ren and he had happened to have the common sense to place the extra bombs that they had brought, which would serve to both complete their original mission and serve as a distraction. Perfect.

Plan formulated, the world resumed its previous speed. And then Jaune released nearly every ounce of his pent up aggression down upon the gathered soldiers and machinery in one blinding flash of Aura. 

If they survived this, and he ever saw him again, Jaune might have to thank Cardin for being the unwitting guinea pig to that particular move.

The yelps of shock and pain was music to his ears.

Oh, there's the ground. Hello ground. It was nice to see you again. He’d need his face back, thanks.

The wind was painfully knocked out of him as he landed awkwardly onto the metal flooring, but other than  _ more _ serious bruising, he would be fine. Luckily for him, he landed on his good side. The one without the horribly inconvenient bolt of steel still brokenly sticking out of it.

Forcing himself up, with the help of a wayward crate, Jaune gasped for air as he hobbled along the sidelines of the chaos that he had created and back behind where his friends were being forced to kneel, noticing Ren doing the same.

Quickly ridding them of their shackles and waving off their concern, they all used the growing pandemonium to make their escape.

As soon as they were in the clear and the base was evacuated, Yang pushed the button.

The fortress blew and it made a beautiful picture.

Then Jaune turned around and punched Oscar in the arm. Hard. Before he could even open his mouth to question what his problem was, the exhausted knight threateningly pointed a figure into his brother's face. "You are to never. EVER. say 'What could possibly go wrong' before a mission ever again. Clear?"

Properly abashed, Oscar sheepishly nodded while still rubbing his arm. "Clear."

Jaune sighed and briefly rested his hand on the boy’s shoulder before nodding deeper into the forest that surrounded the mountain where the factory fortress had previously been located. "Let's go find a good place to set up camp for the night." No one argued.

Blake helped Ren onto Nora’s back so that the valkyrie could carry her injured partner, and then allowed Weiss to use her as a crutch. Sharing a meaningful glance with her sister, Ruby zoomed ahead to look out for Grimm as Yang led the way into the darkness. 

All of which Jaune was silently thankful for as it distracted any of them from examining him closer and making a big deal out of his injuries.

Which they weren't. A big deal, that is.

Nope.

Definitely not.

He was quite sure that it was actually getting colder because the sun was setting and not because he was going into shock. He was perfectly fine.

...He was in serious trouble, wasn't he?

A soft whine made everyone freeze and whip around to the maker of the sound. It was Ren, looking miserable and in pain. Through pained, squinted eyes, he weakly waved them off. "Apologies. Please do not mind me."

Frowning, but only out of worry and not true anger, Jaune shook his head. "Nuh uh. No way, man.”

“This is as good a place as any to set up camp,” Ruby interjected, zipping back into view in a flurry of petals. “Weiss, could you make some sort of hut thing? It doesn’t have to look nice,” she said, passing the heiress the few Earth Dust rounds she had remaining. 

Weiss nodded and winced, having twisted her ankle during their capture. "Don’t worry, I’ll have a shelter up in no time," she groaned, leaving her weight resting against Blake so she could focus on her work.

Ruby nodded to Weiss to start setting up the stone shelters as Nora settled the groaning Ren against the trunk of a tree. She waved Oscar over, and, grabbing him, the two of them zipped further into the dark forest to hunt for firewood.

Jaune thanked the growing shadows that hid his leg when Nora gave him a searching look before focusing on tending to Ren. 

He knew that he wouldn't be able to avoid her forever, and giving her tasks that kept her away from him was sure to make her suspicious sooner rather than later. But they had so much more to worry about than something that might not even be that bad.

It was, and he knew it. 

Jaune might be stupid, but he wasn’t dumb. He couldn’t pull the rest of the bolt out in the middle of the forest, and healing his leg would just encase the damn bolt inside. The pain had settled into a low pulsing ache that sent waves of nausea and dizziness crashing over him every time he shifted his weight. 

So yeah. He was not having a good time.

Gingerly leaning against the same tree Ren was and resting his eyes for a moment, he could feel the last of his adrenaline trickle out of his system, leaving him beyond exhausted, disoriented, and pained. And this time it was ten times worse. Feeling sick, a few full bodied shivers sneaking past his self control. 

Jaune shoved it all away, locked into a tiny box at the back of his mind to deal with later. Or preferably, never. Never dealing with it was infinitely preferable.

Paying no heed to his shaking hands, Jaune fumbled with his battered Scroll and flicked it on. "Jaune to the Qrow. Jaune to Qrow Branwen. Can you hear me?" Signal was patchy at best, but they couldn’t afford to wait for the established rendezvous tomorrow afternoon.

"I hear ya, kid. Where are you guys?" came the gruff reply, voice turned tinny by the speakers.

Relief swept through his bones, taking more strength than Jaune could spare. Grunting as he sat down, he knew he wouldn't be moving for a while, whether he wanted to or not. "South, down a ways from the main gates I think. We'll keep a fire burning until you can get an airship or some kind of transport here. The quicker, the better.” 

Jaune glanced at the pale face of his teammate, and then over at Weiss, whose teeth were gritted in pain from putting weight on her injured ankle. “Weiss and Ren aren’t looking so hot, and we'd feel a lot better if we had some actual medical supplies to help them."

"Sure thing, I'll be there as quick as I can. And I’d hope that Ice Queen Jr. doesn't look hot. Wouldn't fit with her whole thing." 

Jaune huffed a laugh at the attempt of humor, and tried to not let his voice betray how much even that hurt. "Heh, that's true. I'm going to let you go now, I'm not sure how much longer the signal will hold."

"Gotcha. Stay safe you guys." With that, the transmission cut out.

Sighing and resting the back of his head on the tree, Jaune once again closed his eyes. It would be so easy to fall asleep... 

"Jaune?" Biting back a long suffering groan, the knight blinked open his eyes, having to briefly rub at them to clear the blurriness. Ruby settled onto the forest floor beside him, but not where she could see his leg, thank goodness.

She rested her head on his shoulder, and without looking at him, simply staring off into the forest in front of them, she quietly questioned. "You alright?"

Jaune blinked down at the top of her head. "Yeah, why do you ask?"

He felt her shrug. "You look really pale. Sick, even. Pained,” Ren groaned, as Nora flopped down on Jaune’s other side. Ruby shifted so that she could look him in the eyes, silver on blue.

"Did something happen on the mission?"

He stayed quiet, every fiber of his being screaming at him to avert his eyes, but then she’d know he was hiding something. To tell her, or not to tell her?

In the end, Ruby looked away first, her shoulders slumping. "It did, didn't it." She said it as a statement. A fact.

He didn't deny it. "Wasn't your fault."

She shoved him away, suddenly glaring. "No, it was my fault! I was the one to come up with the plan. I was the one who made the mistake! Don't you dare try to tell me otherwise Jaune Ar-mpth!" 

Ruby suddenly found her voice muffled as Jaune pulled her into a hug, drawing his most effective de-escalation tactic from many years of living with sisters. She fought it for a minute, before leaning into his embrace and quietly crying.

"I th-thought I had lost you guys... There were so many signs of a fight, a- and then Weiss got hurt, and then we got caught, and t-then..."She hiccuped, and he just pulled her closer, humming some tune Saphron used to when he’d have a nightmare.

After she had calmed down and wiped away any remaining evidence of tears, Jaune brought his Semblance up to heal the few srapes Ruby’s Aura hadn’t managed to. “Thanks,” Ruby muttered, leaning away.

“Eh, what are friends for,” Jaune said, biting back a groan of pain.

A bang and a whoop of triumph from Yang indicated that the fire had been started, if by rather less than conventional means. And some fish had been fried up and eaten, courtesy of Blake.

The Faunus had gone and caught them as soon as Weiss was finished setting up camp and no longer needed to stand. Jaune barely touched his food, but made sure that it seemed like he did. Then everyone headed into the shelters Weiss had cobbled together, unaware of just how much drama was about to unfold the coming morning.


	6. Rough Sailing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He was a paper boat in a thunderstorm lost at sea. One wave, just slightly too big, would be all it would take to swallow him up whole

Jaune moaned, squeezing his eyes shut. Was the world supposed to spin that fast?

He could’ve sworn it had been cold when he went to sleep, so why did it feel like he was melting? But that wasn't the worst part, not by far. The icy cold that stole his breath away always came rushing back after he had melted, freezing him. His skin, his bones, his blood, all of it, making his body react with bone-rattling shivers that seemed to make everything worse.

But all of this waned in the face of the sheer ball of agony his leg had become.

It made him want to die. Seriously, just put him out of his misery already. He had to fight to keep the two meager bites of fish he had managed to choke down last night from making a reappearance.

He wasn't fine. He couldn't even try to fool himself into thinking that when he couldn't even move, save for half curling painfully into a ball on the ground before he had to stop lest he passed out.

The only thing he hoped was that Nora or Ruby didn't find him first. Gods they were going to  _ kill _ him.

Jaune knew his fever was getting worse, but at this point, it was only a distant thought.

What was that blob?

No, stop shaking me.

Why are you being so loud?

Shuuuussssshhhhhh.

Your hands are cold, lemme alone.

Suddenly pain. Blinding, unbearable pain that made tears come unbidden to his eyes as the blob… Blobs? Were there more than one? He couldn't tell anymore. As the blobs brushed against the broken bolt of steel sticking out of his leg.

What was that sound? Who was screaming? Oh wait... That was him. It kinda sounded like it was far away.

Underwater.

Muffled.

Mmmuuufffffffllleeeddd… Muffled was a funny word...

Oh, wait. He was moving. Hrrk. Nope. Abort. Abort.

Jaune could feel the horrible feeling of stomach acid burning his throat as he heaved wherever his head was pointing. Uggghhhhhhhhh.

He was in pain, sick, confused and really wanted to die. Why has no one putting him out of his misery?!

Jaune could hear a bubbling stream of voices, but just like the water of a stream, it slipped through his fingers. Nothing made sense anymore. Why were there so many different colored blobs? It made his already pounding head hurt even worse. He closed his eyes, the darkness instantly soothing the added thorns to his headache.

Then, he felt a super-cooled hand pat his cheek. But all his strength was sapped out of his limbs, his mind, and he barely even flinched. Please, please leave him alone. Let him sink into the nice, comforting darkness. 

His lack of reaction caused a flurry of action, sounds, maybe voices, and just the barely perceived sense of pure panic. Why? What was wrong? Jaune struggled to blink open his heavy, sticky eyelids. He could only manage to open them to about half-way, but it was enough. 

Slowly blinking, and that was a true challenge, because his eyes did not wanna stay open, everything slowly came into focus.

He... was in the house? Hm, they must have found them. Good. That... that was good.

The next thing that came into focus was Ruby’s determined, tear-stained face. Why was Ruby crying? Did someone hurt her?! He had to help, had to get up and stop whoever it was from hurting her-

All thoughts fled his mind as the pain in his leg increased a thousand fold. Next thing he knew, he was screaming. 

His world blotted out, and all he could feel was the tormenting feel of mind numbing agony. His leg was on  _ fire _ . It hurt, oh did it hurt. Stop. Stop it. Stop it stop it stop it stop it stopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopit _ stopitstopitstopit- _

Unable to bear the pain any longer, the world went dark.

* * *

Ruby sighed as she wrung out the cold, wet cloth before she placed it back onto her best friend's sweltering forehead. How had it come to this? How could they have missed such a grievous injury that friend had?

This was all her fault. If she'd only been more attentive, and not wallowing in her own doubts and self-pity about the mission. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Ruby flinched as Jaune whimpered softly, no doubt his fever spiking. She softly took his scalding hand in her own, gently rubbing the back of his hand with her thumb. They'd found Jaune delirious with fever when they had gone to see why he wasn't up yet, the hard ground underneath him stained red with his own blood.

She'd never forget the sheer lifelessness as they tried to awaken the knight. 

That was when they found the horrendous injury in the form of a steel bolt lodged deeply into his leg. The steel bolt went deep, and the muscle around it was torn and irritated. It must have gotten worse with all the running around and fighting he had done. Not to mention the raging infection that must have set in sometime during the night.

Her friend's screams as they'd removed the bolt would haunt her nightmares.

She'd known that it wasn't going to be painless, as they didn't have the necessary equipment to put him under, they were too far from the nearest hospital, and the only person who could’ve numbed the pain was the one injured. It had been their only option that would ensure that Jaune would survive until they could get to proper medical help... But it didn't mean that she had to like it.

Yang, unnaturally subdued, quietly made her way into the room, closing the door behind her before she made her way over. The brawler gently rubbed Ruby's shoulder, his eyes never leaving the haggard, pale-skinned form in the bed. 

"We'll be at the hospital in a few minutes." She murmured softly. Sucking in what was supposed to be a steadying breath, Ruby nodded, briefly scrubbing at her eyes. 

Yang wisely said nothing and instead started helping her ready Jaune for transportation. Pulling off his armor was a struggle, as it made him wince in pain even unconscious. His shirt was sticking to his chest with sweat, and his hair was plastered to his forehead. She couldn't help her full bodied shiver as she watched his lungs struggle for each breath.

It... it just wasn't right seeing their dorky, passionate friend like this.

Not at all.

* * *

Nora breathed.

In.

And out.

In.

And out.

Crunch.

She growled, frustrated, and was this close to throwing this flimsy chair that insisted on its armrests breaking every time she laid a finger on it.

It totally wasn't because she was too upset to properly control his strength. Nope. Completely the chair's fault.

She was about to throw it across the room when Oscar despondently trudged his way in looking for all the world he was carrying the world's burdens. Shoulders slumped, he didn't even look up as he bonelessly collapsed into the chair next to her. Nora could relate.

Getting Jaune into emergency care had been a nightmare. Not because of the staff, but because the knight had stopped breathing as they loaded him onto a gurney. Ruby had frozen, her eyes wide in terror and helplessness. Yang had taken her home, and Weiss and Blake had gone with her. Ren was still stuck at the Bounty, and his absence was making her antsy

And now she and Oscar were stuck waiting.

Nora could tell that Oscar was trying his hardest to keep it together, to be the strong future immortal wizard guy that he thought that he needed to be 24/7 no matter what anyone else said. 

She got it, she really did, but it didn't make it any less upsetting. Shaking her head, she wrapped an arm around her little brother and tugged him closer to her side. Oscar stiffened, but soon relaxed, burying his face into her shoulder. 

Nora clenched her jaw and closed her eyes at the sheer helplessness to stop the tremors shaking the boy's shoulders as he struggled to quiet his hiccuping sobs.

She could feel Oscar mumble something into her now soaked jacket and rubbed his shoulder while glancing down at the mop of shaggy brown hair, "You're going to have to speak up buddy, I didn't catch that."

Oscar revealed his tear-soaked face and heart shattering, shiny-with-tears, big hazel eyes that just destroyed Nora's soul just looking at. Something howling inside her to fix, or destroy, depending on the situation, whatever was hurting him.

And she... couldn't.

It physically hurt her not being able to fix this kind of hurt.

She knew there was only one thing, one person who could... And he was in the emergency room struggling to survive.

"It's just not fair." Oscar whimpered, half-hiding his face back into her jacket, snapping her out of her thoughts. 

That took Nora aback, blinking down at him. Oscar never complained about things being fair. Ever. Even though he had more than enough reason to, what with the whole Ozpin thing. It was sad, but true. And they had never heard him once say anything about it.

But... this wasn't about Oscar.

This time, it was for Jaune's sake.

If her heart hadn't been hurting before for Oscar, by the gods was it now. She wrapped both arms around her friend, offering every ounce of comfort that she was able, gently shushing him.

"I know. I know it's unfair, and I know you know that's the way life is," she added on, knowing what tended to run through her own head and hoping it would apply to this, "But Jaune's the strongest person I know, and if anyone can pull through, he can."

With a final sniff, resolve hardened in Oscar's eyes as he nodded, wiping away the tears still rolling down his cheeks, "You're right. Jaune can do this. We just... We just gotta put our faith in him."

Nora gave him a tired half-smile and tousled his hair, "That's right."

"That's exactly right."

* * *

Ren was pacing.

That in itself was worrying.

But he really didn't care at this moment in time.

There was still no word, after hours of waiting.

After Yang and Ruby had returned, one grim and the other still in shock, he had taken to pacing around the ship and hadn't stopped once for eight hours.

Eight hours of worrying. More like nine, since he hadn't stopped worrying since they found Jaune this morning.

Eight hours of "what if?"s.

Eight hours of not knowing whether Jaune was going to pull through.

It was enough to wear a track into the poor floor. Ren just hoped that news, any kind of news, would be given to them soon.

He wasn't sure how much more they could take…

* * *

It had been twelve hours since Jaune had been admitted, and only just now was he being settled into his hospital room in the ICU so that he could be watched over for any complications.

The news had been grim. Jaune'd flat-lined five times. Five. And had, on the last one, been legally dead for an entire forty-eight seconds.

Forty-eight seconds, the world had been without it's lovable, dorky noodle boy.

That was forty-eight seconds too long in Yang’s books.

But, that wasn't all. Ohhh, no.

The nurses had revealed that their friend’s body was littered with scars of all sizes. From paper-cut worthy, to how-the-heck-are-you-even-still-alive?! sizes. They had all been gobsmacked, and then unbelievably angry, when they'd found out. 

Why hadn't he told them? Just how often had he been injured without their notice?! Many of them from this past year alone!

Needless to say, they all wanted some answers.

Sadly, they might not be getting any.

Jaune had a raging infection trying to tear him apart from the inside-out, and with his blood-loss, there was a very high chance of him never waking up at all.

As she said. Bad.

Really, the only reason Yang wasn't falling apart right now in a panicking mess, was because Ruby needed her. So she stayed strong, toughing it out in silence as she watched her slowly fall apart with each near mechanical breath.

Machines. She was good with machines. If they broke, you could fix them. If they died, you could revive them.

But Jaune wasn't a machine.

He was broken in ways that she couldn't fix.

And if he died... she couldn't revive him.

There were no do-overs. No magic reset button.

Nothing she could do.

Yang decided she hated that.

Jaune wasn't aware of anything, really... Just that it was soft. Warm. Painless.

...Painless?

That seemed wrong to him somehow. But... he couldn't remember why...

He sunk into a haze.

Drifting aimlessly, he could vaguely tell that time had passed. 'How long?' He distantly wondered.

The question faded.

Thoughts continued to trickle through his hands, touching the surface of them, but never being able to grasp onto them for long.

He continued to drift.

Something was missing, he realized later. That realization came with a certain, clear clarity that allowed him to grab onto it with both hands in a vice-like grip. The haze lifted a little. He was suddenly aware of a sore ache that he could feel deep down into every bone.

He'd forgotten he'd even had bones...

The feeling of something missing and the general sense of something is wrong grew. Where was he? How did he get here?

A sudden thought slammed into him like a rampaging Boarbatusk.

Where were his friends?

Desperation burned out the rest of the hazy darkness he had settled into for who knows how long, his injuries that he'd forgotten about up till now made themselves known with a vengeance. And his memories became crystal clear along with them.

Oh.

Perfect.

They were going to murder him for this...

But first, he had to wake up.

After all, he couldn't be dead because he doubted that he would be this aching and sore in the after-life.

Waking up proved to be more difficult then he had expected.

But, never the one to be deterred, he finally pushed though.

And found himself staring at a ceiling in a dark hospital room.

* * *

Good news. Finally.

After a week of no relatively no improvement from the knight, the doctors had informed them of increased brain activity and that his Aura was finally replenishing properly. His chances of waking up, of surviving this, went up a little more each day.

They were up to two weeks, two horribly long weeks, the doctors saying that Jaune could be waking up at any time now.

Anytime.

Any time at all.

The clock read midnight. The witching hour.

Oscar never understood that saying. And really, he was too tired to even try. He was pretty sure that his heavy eyes were blood-shot, red from crying.

Red. Red was the color of fire. The color of power. The color of warmth.

But it was also the color of war. Of danger. Of blood.

Jaune's blood.

Every time he blinked, the images seared into his eyelids, he could see Jaune laying pale and still, oh, so still, and in a puddle of mostly dried blood. He could see and time the exact moment he stopped breathing, stopped fighting.

But, then, Jaune never did stop fighting, did he?

No, he fought tooth and nail, even while deeply unconscious, and his heart continued to stubbornly hold onto life even if it faltered at times. 

Even with a raging infection that the doctors had only just been able to battle back, calling it a close thing and that if Jaune hadn’t had such abnormally high Aura reserves, that they probably wouldn’t have been able to save him. 

Same with his leg. The doctors had been amazed that Jaune had evaded having it amputated, though by a narrow margin. Yet they doubted that he would ever be able to walk without assistance of a cane from now on.

But Semblances and stubbornness were powerful things. Especially where Jaune was concerned.

They gave it about a month or two before Jaune was walking around like nothing had ever happened.

Oscar smiled at the thought, before a soft groan shattered the silence as if it was spun glass. It immediately held every ounce of his attention as he scrambled to his feet and closer to Jaune's side, daring to feel hope as it blossomed in his chest.

Jaune's face was scrunched, and then...

He blinked open his eyes.


	7. Moving Forward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Moving forward was never easy when you were so set in your ways. But with help, maybe his friends could keep Jaune from moving backwards.

For a moment he simply…

Existed.

Drifted in that murky place between sleep and consciousness.

_ Jaune! _

Breathed.

_ Yo...awake! _

The world swam in a way he never thought it could, all blurred and rushed together. As if…

Was he underwater?

_ Jaune? _

_ Nonono, Jaune, don't-! _

Panic slammed into him like a speeding truck, and suddenly he was coughing and  _ coughing _ he couldn't _ breathe where did the air go?! _

_ Jaune, listen, please! Breathe with _ me okay? Feel that?" Something, someone, grabbed his cold hand with their own warm one, placing it…. It on…. On their chest? Taking deep, exaggerated breaths. "Yeah, that's me. That's it… that's it, just breathe Jaune. You're just fine, Jaune, just please breath…"

Taking gulps of air, his weakened hand finally managed to grab hold of the person that was supporting him. The world finally, finally stopped swimming, revealing a darkened hospital room with his little brother's familiar brilliant, hazel eyes peering at him worriedly.

Quietly panting, Jaune furrowed his brows. Wh..what happened? Why was he in a hospital bed…?

And why did Oscar have that achingly familiar haunted look in his eyes as his gaze seemed to drink in the sight of his friend alive, not dead and dying and screaming, oh the  _ screams- _

"You almost died." Oscar suddenly answered, his voice wavering and shattering Jaune's thoughts. Something like anger flared in the boy's eyes, but… but, no, it…. it ran deeper than that.

There was fear in his little brother's eyes.

Fear of loss.

Fear of losing his big brother.

Fear of losing  _ him _ .

Jaune's heart shattered. Before he could offer anything, before he could even open his mouth, Oscar barreled on.

"You can't- you can't do that to me, to any of us! You idiot, did you even think of what you dying would do to your friends? To your  _ family?! _ " Oscar ranted through the tears that threatened to stream down his face, voice catching and stumbling over the words.

Far from done, he stabbed a finger at his big brother. Jaune absently noted that Oscar's hand was shaking, the rest of his mind struggling to process everything else.

"Did you think that we wouldn't be devastated? That we would be better off without you?!" Oscar didn't even let Jaune answer, "Because we wouldn't!"

"We wouldn't," he repeated, panting, as if, if he had to make anything clear, it would be that. The righteous fury seemed to waver, his livid expression slowly crumbling into something far more vulnerable.

Oscar at this moment had never looked younger.

He hiccuped as he tried to fight the sobs that would not be stopped no matter how many times he went to scrub the tears away.

Sometimes it was easy for Jaune to forget that Oscar had just been thrown into this, and that he wasn’t even old enough to really attend one of the academies. And honestly, with how everything was going and Ozpin on top of everything, who knew if Oscar would last that long. Or even be  _ himself _ by then.

Every instinct screamed at Jaune to fix this, make this right, no matter what it took-

Oscar stiffened as he felt arms, familiar arms, weakly shift to hug him, before simply giving in to his tears and hugging Jaune back as tightly as he could without hurting him.

Too close.

That had been too close…

* * *

Jaune had been thoroughly chewed out in the passing hours.

The poor nurses had all but given up at this point trying to enforce the rule of "one visitor at a time" as the others had stormed the room.

No one even dared try to stop Nora on a warpath. Not with that look in her cutting stormy sea eyes. Reports would say that lightning had crackled off of her as she raged at the bed-bound knight.

And those reports would be understating things.

Oscar looked smugly satisfied off in his corner as she all but physically shook her leader, hissing seething words and threats that if he ever pulled something like this again she would kill him if whatever else didn't first, revive him, and then kill him again.

No one had any doubt that she would follow through on those threats.

Her piece said, she wrapped Jaune up in a firm hug. Something silent passed between them, and Jaune buried his face into her shoulder. 

And if his shoulders shook with finally released sobs, then nobody commented.

The others soon came in, all clamoring and scolding and all silently reassuring themselves that their friend was here and alive and…and while not necessarily okay, not yet, not by a long shot, he had the chance to become so.

And that's all they really could have asked for.

* * *

Two weeks later…

"Jaune, I swear to the gods, if I find you on your feet without at least your crutches one more time-"

"But Rubyyyy, it's so boring sitting around all day!"

"Well then maybe next time don’t tromp around for hours with a freaking iron rod sticking out of your leg!!” they heard Nora shriek.

Ren and Yang glanced at each other, Ren fondly rolling his eyes and shaking his head as Yang quietly snickered. Yep, things were, slowly but surely, going back to normal.

Qrow peeked out from the kitchen, looking mildly concerned but wholly unsurprised. "They at it again?"

Oscar groaned, burying his face into one of the throw pillows on the couch. "Jaune doesn't seem to understand that he almost lost a leg," he grumbled. "He shouldn't even be thinking of walking, let alone training."

"It is good to see our friend back to his old self again," Ren commented wryly.

A moment of heavy silence passed, memories of that first week forcing their way to the forefront of their minds…

...The less said about that week, the better.

"How long do you think it'll take for Jaune to try and secretly train again?" Yang asked as he forced a grin that looked almost genuine as he tried to break the grim silence that had fallen over them.

It seemed to have become a common thing as of late.

Yang snorted. "I give it an hour or two unsupervised."

Weiss ruefully shook her head, "Honestly, it is completely illogical to be pushing himself this hard right now."

"That's Jaune for you," Blake sighed, settling onto the couch beside Oscar.

Grumbling, Yang plopped down on the floor beside them, resting her back against the couch. "Has he always been this self sacrificing, or is this a new thing? Because I feel like he's either gotten worse…. Or he's just gotten sloppy at hiding it."

"A mix of both, if I'm being perfectly honest."

The teens collectively glanced up to see Ruby returning from the knight's room. She shrugged, and continued, "It wasn’t always this bad, but since the Fall..."

She crossed her arms, going for the look of ease to cover up that fact she was hugging herself at the memories dragging themselves to the surface. Memories of long, cold nights as her friend slaved away in training when he thought they couldn’t see. 

Memories of them finding their friend going hungry in those stretches of forest when there wasn’t a village in sight, always passing up the food so they could be a little more full.

Jaune crying, screaming at Cinder from across the room, charging into a fight he couldn’t possibly win...

Ruby mentally shook herself, dragging herself back from the depths of her memories. "...but yeah. He's definitely gotten worse since Beacon. And I guess that makes it a little harder to hide, the levels and extents he goes to now..."

There was a moment of silent agreement.

"We can't let this happen again," Oscar murmured into the yet again silent room.

No one needed clarification to what 'this' was.

"Yeah, but how are we supposed to stop him? Sloppy hiding or not, we still never suspected a thing until we found him almost dead." Yang replied, her frustration and fear and worry all spilling into her words unbidden.

Blake nudged her with a foot. "Well, this time we know to look for it. This time we're ready for him to do these sorts of things."

Ren gave a determined nod of agreement as he added, "I have been going over his behaviors and reactions over the last few months." His expression grew serious. "It appears that our friend has a very bad habit of avoiding medical checks."

"Not anymore." Ruby declared, her tone final, and her hands on her hips. "I don't care if it's a paper-cut, we  _ will  _ know about it after every mission… I am not going to lose another friend to these kinds of self-sacrificing stunts."

The others voiced their full-hearted agreements-

_ Thump! _

Oh, not again….

"Jaune!" Nora yelped from the other room. “Stay in the freaking bed, before I am forced to knock you out to make sure!”

Ren winced, and got smoothly to his feet. “I should probably check on that,” he said. Wouldn’t want Nora injuring him in some misplaced sense of protection.

Jaune wasn’t get hurt again on his watch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's that for that! Hope you all enjoyed, I had a lot of fun reading this. I've got a couple other stories I'm writing at the moment, so if you wanna check them out, feel free to do so. But if not, have a great day!


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